Alive Again
by opalheart12
Summary: Abbie is having trouble adjusting to being back from her time in the catacombs, needing constant proof it isnt all a trick. Surely Crane can prove to her once and for all that she is back at his side for good.
_**A/N: I felt like doing another one-shot of Ichabbie. As usual I own nothing. Hope you all enjoy this one. Onward.**_

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She woke up in the middle of the night, 2:18am to be exact. A particularly loud rumble of thunder and a piercing smack of lightning woke her from a nightmare she could not remember. The house was dark and quiet. She crept down the stairs slowly to avoid waking Crane.

Abbie's body was still covered in a thin sheen of sweat and she shook as she tried to make herself a cup of chamomile tea. Despite her efforts, it didn't taste the way Crane made it and it did not make her feel any better. Still, she drank more and sat on the sofa with her legs folded beneath her. It was cold in the living room, but with her tea as warm as it was, Abbie forgot about it.

It was the catacombs. Though she could not remember her dream, she knew that was the only thing that would make her feel as she had. Usually, the nightmare she had about her time there centered around her being stuck there for all eternity or that Crane left her time and time again, forgetting her more and more. She recalled the previous night when she'd dreamt that Crane had given up his search for her and getting her back from the catacombs. She hadn't been able to get back to sleep.

Sometimes it didn't feel as if she was really back home. Tonight was one of those nights. She dissociated quite frequently when she had nightmares. Most of her refused to believe that she wasn't still in the catacombs, that her home was not some cruel trick being played on her by Pandora and The Hidden One to be taken away at a moment's notice. Abbie found herself in the kitchen with a small knife in her hand. If it really was all a trick, the knife would tell her. She needed to know she was really here. She pressed the knife into the middle of her hand, wincing at the pain that raced through her.

"Lieutenant?"

His voice scared her, causing her to drop the knife on the floor with a loud thud. She looked up and saw Crane standing there, bleary eyed yet staring at her curiously. She felt frozen on the spot before the pulsing feeling in her hand made her move. She walked toward him slowly, her left hand dripping blood at a pace that should not have been ignored.

Crane's eyes shifted downward and widened when he saw the condition of her hand. He stepped toward her to inspect it better when her right hand graced his face. He stopped, his insides being replaced with cement as he forced himself not to enjoy what her hand felt like. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion and she pressed her hand into his face a little harder, though not painfully.

"You're really here." It sounded more like a question she didn't think she should ask. "You're going to leave soon." She pulled her hand quickly away as if his face stung her.

He shook his head and took her bloody hand in his own as he walked her over to the sink, squeezing it tightly the whole way. "I am not leaving, Abbie. I am here." He replied resolutely as his eyes held her own firmly.

She nodded wordlessly as she tugged nervously on her bottom lip, her eyes peering up curiously at his. She wasn't sure if she believed him when he said he would never leave her. He had before. What would stop him from doing so a second time?

"Do you promise?" She asked quietly, holding his eyes again.

"I promise. I would not lie to you, Lieutenant." He was cleaning her wound and wrapping it in gauze. Though his face betrayed no emotion, he was raging inside.

Abbie had not told him much about her time in the catacombs other than it was a hell she thought she might never leave. She had not told him, but he could very well guess what she was feeling. He remembered feeling much the same when he'd found himself in the twenty first century. Everyday he hoped it was all a dream. Some part of him even hoped he could go back. But then Abbie came into his life and every day got a little easier.

Abbie had been there for him and supported him, helped to make him feel like this was a world to which he could belong. Now, he had to do the same for her.

He finished wrapping her hand and pushed the first aid kit aside. "Abbie," he breathed, holding her uninjured hand firmly in his own. "Why did you do this?"

She had the look of a skittish animal in her eyes and he knew it well. Tears rose to her eyes and she looked down in shame and sniffed in an effort to keep them away. "I needed to know I was still here, Crane." The tears came fast just then as she stood and walked to her room, leaving Crane awestruck.

It took him a few minutes before he realized he needed to go after her. He found her on her bed with her back to the door. He saw her shoulders shake from crying and felt every part of his heart ache. She didn't seem to notice when he closed the door and walked toward her bed.

"Abbie-"

"Please, go away." Her voice was small and unsteady, completely unlike anything he'd heard from her.

"I cannot, in good conscience, leave you this way, Lieutenant." Crane stated firmly.

Abbie did not object to him and went about crying, albeit somewhat more quietly. She did not object when Crane joined her on the bed and pulled her close to him so that she was laying on top of him.

He let her cry into his chest for as long as she needed. What she felt would not go away by talking. She needed to cry. Even she could not remember the last time she had. She certainly had not cried in the catacombs. She refused to even allow herself to do so. To cry was to be weak, and the catacombs was not a place for weak people.

"You should know, Lieutenant, that should you ever require me to remind you of your presence, I shall always be here to do so. You must know that."

The room was quiet, and Crane wondered if Abbie had gone to sleep. It seemed as if she'd read his mind, for at that moment she moved so that she was facing him.

"You...you can't leave again, Crane. This whole apocalypse bullshit is not something I can do without you." Her eyes pleaded with him and he found himself nodding near involuntarily. "I'm serious." Her voice cracked again and he hugged her again before pulling her slightly away from him.

"I swear upon my life that I shall not leave you of my own volition again, Abigail." His voice held such conviction and firmness that Abbie simply nodded in response. Her eyes wandered somewhere slightly above his eyes and she found herself playing with his hair in yet another effort to make sure he really was there with her.

His eyes traveled down to her lips and before he could lose his nerve he kissed her. Despite the feelings he'd been harboring for her for quite some time, the kiss was tentative and soft. He backed away, searching her eyes for a reaction. She looked down at him curiously for a moment before returning the kiss, this time more firmly.

"I apologize if that was improper-"

"Don't. It wasn't. I swear." She sat up and pulled him with her so that they were both sitting across from each other on the bed. "I'm glad you did it."

He nodded, though he wasn't sure the gravity of the kiss had caught up to him just yet. He took her uninjured hand in his and used his free hand to touch her face. She closed her eyes and leaned into his touch, sighing softly. "Lieutenant, I need you to promise me something in return."

She opened her eyes lazily in response. "What?"

He sighed and looked down, closing his eyes tightly as he thought of how to word his next statement. He took a deep breath before speaking again. "Please do not hurt yourself anymore. I know that is a difficult promise to make, Lieutenant, but the thought of you taking your own life...it troubles me more than I can say. If you need help getting through this, I swear I will do all that I can to ensure your mental health, whether it is I you decide to talk to or someone else."

Abbie nodded in understanding. "I can promise you that, Crane. Besides, even though I need to prove to myself that I am here on this plane, I very much like being alive. Being with you, doing what we do...it makes me feel alive."

"On that, I believe we can agree." He smiled and kissed her forehead before pulling her to him in a tight hug. He surely had no intentions to let her go any time soon.

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 _ **A/N: Hope you guy loved this one. Until next time...**_


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